How Ice Cream and FLEX-ible Funding Help Those in Need

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How Ice Cream and FLEX-ible Funding Help Those in Need Oahu-based nonprofit Touch a Heart, with help from Hawaii Community Foundation, used an ice cream recipe to fund its internship program.

By Hawaii Community Foundation April 10, 2019 Who knew that supporting a good cause could be so delicious? This only-in-Hawaii ice cream flavor has become a mainstay at Uncle Clay’s House of Pure Aloha in Ala Moana Center—Uncle Pono’s Ulu Ice Cream—and its sales benefit people who are putting their lives back together after being down-and-out. The breadfruit (“ulu” in Hawaiian) ice cream recipe won the Most Innovative Dish award at a “Taste of Kamehameha” cooking competition—but its creator, President and CEO of the Oahu Economic Development Board, Pono Shim, wasn’t interested in commercializing it. He only wanted to raise awareness of breadfruit as a local ingredient with the potential to feed many in Hawaii. So, he gifted the recipe to Touch a Heart, an Oahu-based nonprofit that provides homeless and disadvantaged individuals with on-the-job training. oday, Touch A Heart (TAH) produces the ice cream and sales of the delicious treat support the organization's internship program. The macadamia nut and lilikoi flavors are already acquiring a fanbase at Uncle Clay's House of Pure Aloha's Ala Moana Center location— partly for the flavors and partly because people want to support the community through TAH. “The ice cream is delicious,” said Robin Kumabe, Executive Director at TAH “Like many things in Hawaii, it comes with a story,” she adds. You could even say that the ice cream comes with many stories. There is the story about how it was created. The story about how and why the recipe was shared. And now there are the many stories about each person helped by Touch A Heart’s program. “When I received my food handler certification, it opened up more possibilities and it changed my life,” says TAH graduate Kellyn Cabral. “I learned how to be dependable, and how to be prompt, and my confidence has gone up. I’m a completely different person and I owe it to Touch A Heart.”


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